In modern society and business, telecommunications are vitally imporant. Telephones can be used to communicate with friends, family, clients, employees, colleagues and business partners around the world. Even in remote areas where land-based telephone lines have not been placed, wireless to satellite telephone systems can provide basic phone service.
Normally, a phone conversation is conducted using a telephone handset. The handset incorporates a speaker which is pressed against or held to the user's ear and a microphone held near the user's mouth. With the speaker, an audio signal from the phone system is transduced into audible sound so that the user can hear what was said by the other party or parties to the phone call. With the microphone, the utterances of the user are transduced into an audio signal that can be transmitted electronically to the other party or parties to the phone call.
In a conventional phone, the handset is connected to a phone base by a phone cord. In a cordless phone, the handset communicates wirelessly with a base unit using radio frequency (“RF”) transmissions. In either case, the phone base unit is connected or wired into a public switched telephone network (“PSTN”).
With a wireless or cellular telephone, the entire phone unit is built into the handset. Transceiver bases are the distributed throughout a service area to communicate wirelessly with the mobile phone unit. Again, the mobile phone units and the transceiver bases communicate using radio frequency transmissions. The network of transceiver bases is also conencted to a PSTN to allow the mobile phone unit to connect to any conventional or other phone unit on the network.
Because of the tremendous communications ability provided by modern telecommunication, many people spend a great deal of time talking on the telephone. Consequently, people often desire to engage in other activities will carrying on a telephonic conversation. For example, a person at home may wish to carry on a phone conversation while preparing a meal or performing other household task. Similarly, a person in an office may wish to work on his or her computer or reference a file or documents while conduting a phone conversation. These tasks may be incident to retrieving information needed in the phone conversation.
In order to allow a person to conduct a phone conversation while also performing other tasks, it is helpful to allow that person's hands to be free for the other tasks to be performed. Consequently, rather than using a hand to hold the telephone handset to his or her mouth and ear, the user must employ some other means of positioning the speaker and microphone of the handset at his or her ear and mouth, respectively.
There are generally two means of properly positioning the speaker and microphone of a telephone unit while leaving the user's hands free for other tasks. The first approach involves incoporating the speaker and microphone in a headset that can be worn on the head of the user so as to properly position the speaker and microphone near the user's ear and mouth, respectively. Such a headset may replace or supplement a traditional handset. The headset may hang from or be clipped to the user's ear or may include a band that rests across the top of the user's head.
When a headset is not desired or available, the user may simply cradle the handset in his or her neck. The back of the handset is placed against the user's shoulder. The user's head is then cocked to one side to place the user's ear against the speaker. In this way, the handset is clasped between the user's shoulder and face with the speaker and microphone properly positioned so that the user can conduct a telephone conversation while having his or her hands free.
While this method of conducting a hands-free phone conversation works, it may be uncomfortable for the user, particularly if the handset is small and the user must struggle to hold the small handset between his or her shoulder and ear. Consequently, shoulder rests have been developed. The sholder rest is adhered to the back of the phone handset to effectively increase the depth of the handset. This makes the handset easier to hold between a user's shoulder and ear becuase the user's head is cocked to one side at a minimal angle.
U.S. Design Pat. No. 273,677 to Martinsen, entitled “Phone Sholder Rest” is exemparly of the prior art. Martinsen teaches a rigid member that can be adhered to the back of a phone handset and which provides a contour adapted to accomodate the curve of a user's sholder. Other examples of this art are provided by U.S. Design Pat. No. 276,339 to Heliner, entitled “Telephone Shoulder Rest;” and U.S. Design Pat. No. 278,057 to McMaster, entitled “Shoulder Rest for Telephone Handset.”
Other prior art in this area include sholder rests that are incorporated into the handset rather than adhered to the handset. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,238,647 to Maspoli, entitled “Telephone Handset Having Shoulder Rest and Adjustable Earpiece,” teaches a shoulder rest that can be extended from and retracted into the back of the telephone handset. U.S. Pat. No. 4,320,262 to Read, entitled “Telephone Handset with Integral Shoulder Rest,” similarly teaches a phone handset with a retractable shoulder rest.
These and other prior art references illustrate the current state of this art. While these shoulder rests answer the purpose for which they were designed, they have a number of shortcomings. For example, prior telephone handset shoulder rests are either rigid members that are adapted to fit a particularly shaped handset or are integrated into the handset. Consequently, there is a need in the art for a single handset that can be provided to users for use with a variety of differently shaped handsets.